Unsteady flow in trailing vortices

Abstract

The instantaneous velocity distribution in trailing vortices generated by lifting hydrofoils has been measured in the Low Turbulence Water Tunnel at the California Institute of Technology. Two different rectangular planform hydrofoils with small aspect ratios were tested. Double-pulsed holography of injected microbubbles, which act much as Lagrangian flow tracers, was used to determine instantaneous axial and tangential velocities. Measurements were made at various free-stream velocities, angles of attack, and downstream distances. The vortex core mean axial velocity is consistently greater than the free-stream velocity near the hydrofoil trailing edge, and decreases with downstream distance. The mean axial velocity is strongly Reynolds-number dependent. Axial flow in the trailing vortex is highly unsteady for all the flow conditions studied; peak-to-peak fluctuations on the centreline as large as the free-stream velocity have been observed. The amplitude of these fluctuations falls rapidly with increasing distance from the centreline. For an angle of attack of 10° the fluctuations consist of both ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ components, whereas for α = 5° only ‘fast’ fluctuations have been observed. Peak decelerations of the centreline fluid occur with amplitude comparable to the maximum centripetal acceleration around the centreline. Certain unusual structures of the vortex core - regions in which the flow direction quickly diverges from the free-stream direction, and then equally quickly recovers - have been labelled ‘vortex kinks.’